MAHB: Passenger movements exceed 7 million mark in may, highest 2 years

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd’s (MAHB) traffic performance for its total network of airports has gained traction in May 2022, recording the highest passenger movements to-date surpassing the seven-million mark for the first time in two years.

The airport operator said both international and domestic passenger movements equally recorded the highest traffic for this year.

In a filing to Bursa Malaysia today, MAHB said international passenger movements in Malaysia were encouraging, reaching one million volume in May 2022, in just over a month after the reopening of borders.

"Lanmei Airlines, a new scheduled airline at Kuala Lumpur International Airport, commenced operation on May 28, with one weekly frequency and plans to subsequently increase to seven times weekly. IndiGo Airlines, Jin Air, Thai Smile Airways, Royal Brunei, and Philippine AirAsia have resumed operations in May.

"Meanwhile, AirAsia, Himalaya Airlines, Indonesia AirAsia, Jetstar Asia, Oman Air, Saudi Arabian Airlines, Scoot Airlines, Thai AirAsia, Thai Airways, US Bangla, Vietjet, and Vietnam Airlines have also increased frequencies, contributing to an additional 209 weekly frequencies in May,” it shared.

As for domestic passenger movements, the airports manager noted that it was equally encouraging, hitting over three million passengers, or 91 per cent of pre-COVID levels.

"The growth was fuelled by Aidilfitri celebrations in the early weeks of May and Sabah and Sarawak’s harvest festival season celebrations towards the end of the month.

"The traffic momentum gained in May also continued into June with an 11 per cent increase in daily average passenger movements to 163,000,” it said.

Meanwhile, MAHB said the Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen International Airport (SGIA) passenger movements also continued to show strong growth, driven by leisure traffic, airlines route and capacity expansion.

"International passenger movements recorded the highest volume to-date in 2022, recording 1.2 million passengers. Anadolujet and Pegasus commenced new services to Milan-Bergamo and Helsinki with daily and four times weekly flights on May 16 and 26 respectively,” it added. - Bernama